In modern integrated circuit (IC) devices, such as complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) transistors, etching processes are becoming increasingly important, in particular etching of metal containing materials, such as metal carbides, metal nitrides, and the like. These metal containing materials are used for various different applications, such as fabricating small scale transistor components. For instance, metal containing materials may be used to replace polysilicon in gate electrodes. Metal containing materials may be also used for barrier layers, work function layers, and other like components. Often different components on a same device need to be etched in a controlled manner, such as using specific etching rates and without damaging other components on the same device. For example, two components may need to be etched simultaneously using substantially the same etching rates while preserving a third component. Alternatively, each component may need to be etched one at a time. As new metal containing materials are adopted for semiconductor applications, new etching techniques are needed.